Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
by Microphone
Summary: Harry goes back to Hogwarts after a fierce battle to relive the times with his friend. One-shot song-fic to Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Miserables, it always seemed so HP... RHr.


Empty Chairs at Empty Tables  
  
A/N: I thought of this story line the first time I really paid attention to the lyrics of this song. I didn't know that there was already a story out  
there with a somewhat similar plotline. Anyway, I hope you like it.  
  
Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Les Miserables.  
  
There´s a grief that can´t be spoken  
There´s a pain goes on and on  
Empty chairs at empty tables  
Now my friends are dead and gone.  
  
Harry Potter walked through the old Hogwarts Great Hall. Spider webs hung off of every corner and rats scurried through holes in the walls. Hogwarts had been finished for several years now...  
  
***Flashback***  
  
"Harry!" Ron called out, bounding towards him, red hair flying in every direction.  
  
Harry grinned at this sight, it was too ridiculous. There last day of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they were GRADUATING, and here Ron hadn't even combed his hair yet.  
  
Ron arrived to him out of breath, the sunlight reflecting off his hair, giving it the appearance that it had turned into gold.  
  
"Mum...and dad-arrived...with Bill...and everyone...else," Ron panted out.  
  
"Whoa, slow down, mate, what's the rush?"  
  
Ron grabbed Harry by the shoulders and began to shake him.  
  
"HARRY! This is our LAST DAY at HOGWARTS! We are GRADUATING!"  
  
Harry laughed and pointed at his friend's uncombed hair, untied shoes, and smudges of dirt covering his body.  
  
"Then you might want to make yourself look more presentable, mate,"  
  
Ron raised a finger in the air and took a deep breath, as though about to argue.  
  
"Good point,"  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
Harry sat down on his favorite chair, eyeing the rest of the room. He could still here their laughter and plans for the future...  
  
Here they talked of revolution  
Here it was they lit the flame  
Here they sang about tomorrow  
And tomorrow never came  
  
***Flashback***  
  
"Hermione, what are you going to do once you graduate?" Ron inquired,  
his mouth over-flowing with food.  
  
Hermione grinned at her boyfriend's oddness and kissed him on the cheek before responding,  
  
"I'm not completely sure, but I would like to be a Professor, it's what I've always wanted to do. How about you, Harry?"  
  
"Either a professional Quidditch player or something like that, Ron?"  
  
Ron blushed, busied himself with his food and muttered,  
  
"It's stupid, really..."  
  
Hermione grinned at him.  
  
"Tell us, we won't laugh,"  
  
"Yeah, please?" Harry begged.  
  
Ron rolled his eyes and muttered,  
  
"I don't know...I guess...I've always wanted to...to act! Okay? Laugh!"  
  
Hermione and Harry sat stunned for a moment before clapping.  
  
"That's great!" Hermione cried.  
  
"Yeah, awesome!" Harry agreed.  
  
Ron grinned feebly at his friends.  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
Harry looked out of a dust-covered window; things had changed too much. When he glanced at the floor his noticed a small pool of blood, dried. Harry sighed and picked up a solitary golden plate. After wiping the thick layer of dirt, dust, and blood off of it, he looked at his reflection.  
  
Empty green eyes stared back at him; his skin was pale, making his scar show vividly. Bony fingers grasped the plate tightly, a white, skull- like face reflected.  
  
From the table in the corner  
They could see a world reborn  
And they rose with voices ringing  
I can hear them now  
  
Harry dropped the plate with a clatter; he covered his face with his hands and cried.  
  
"Why did you go? Why did you leave me?" Harry wept.  
  
The voices of his friends echoed around him, reminding him of bitter memories, all gone past.  
  
***Flashback***  
  
"Harry," Dumbledore said quietly.  
  
Harry looked up at him from behind his glasses. Dumbledore's face was grave.  
  
"The time to act has come, we must face Voldemort,"  
  
~One Month Later~  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood in the Great Hall, ready to face Voldemort and the Death Eaters when the came through the large, double doors. The whole school and the Order of the Phoenix faced the doors, wands at ready.  
  
The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. Mist billowed around the school, choking it, as storm clouds gathered.  
  
In a few minutes, the rain had begun and they could here the soft footsteps of Voldemort and his followers.  
  
A single voice broke through the silence; Hermione began to sing a British war song. Ron and Harry quickly joined in, followed by the rest of the Weasleys.  
  
The very words that they had sung  
Became their last communion  
On the lonely barricade at dawn  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
Harry stood up and began to walk to the front of the Great Hall, to where the professors always sat. On his way there, he passed numerous blood spills and a couple of decaying bodies, one of which he recognized.  
  
He bent down to stroke back what was left of the corpse' hair. The jaw was open in a never-ending scream for mercy, and the hands were clutching air, as though the person had been clinging to their lover as long as possible.  
  
***Flashback***  
  
Harry walked around the room after the battle was over, searching for survivors. The school had been destroyed, the walls remained but huge holes blotched out its past perfection. Blood was pooled over everything and the mist had poured into the school, giving it a hazy look.  
  
Suddenly a flash of bushy brown hair caught Harry's eye. He bent down and saw half of what he had been dreading, Hermione.  
  
She was dead.  
  
Her mouth was open, she had been screaming. Harry noticed her hands were wrapped in an odd position, as though she'd been clinging to somebody's arm.  
  
Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me  
That I live and you are gone  
There´s a grief that can´t be spoken  
There´s a pain goes on and on  
  
Harry had to run only a few yards before he got to Ron's corpse.  
  
His glassy eyes stared off somewhere into Harry's face. His left arm outstretched, reaching for one who was already dead. A large area of his head was missing, as though someone had clubbed it off. Harry couldn't stand to see his blood, still warm, flowing from the body.  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
Harry looked down to see the hair that he had been stroking had come off in his hand. He laid it gently on Hermione's body and ran over to Ron's.  
  
His was practically gone. A skeleton, clothes, and a bit of decaying flesh here and there. Harry choked back the lump that was growing in his throat.  
  
Harry noticed a small lump in Ron's pocket. He reached in and found a small, velvet box. He opened it and inside there was a small, golden band with three diamonds and a sapphire. Harry stared at it for a long time before walking slowly back to Hermione's body.  
  
He gently lifted what was left of her once beautiful hands and slid the ring onto her finger.  
  
"It's what Ron was planning, Hermione? Isn't it great? My two best friends are getting married," Harry managed to say before he burst into tears.  
  
A single drop fell onto Hermione's face.  
  
Phantom faces at the window  
Phantom shadows on the floor  
Empty chairs at empty tables  
Where my friends will meet no more  
  
Harry stood up slowly and looked at Dumbledore's chair. There, sat a headless skeleton, compliments of Voldemort.  
  
Right as Harry was about to leave, he picked up one last thing from the floor.  
  
It was the sheet of parchment, Ron's and Hermione's last words of love, written down is desperation.  
  
Ron-  
  
It's me, Hermione. I'm so scared Ron, what are we supposed to do? I just don't know! This could be the fate of the wizarding world! I want to finish growing up, I want to raise a family and grow old. I love you, Ron.  
  
-Hermione  
  
'Mione-  
  
I'm scared too, Mione, it's okay. But we're fighting alongside Harry, and he's never let either of us die before. Stressful, yes. I, too, would like to have a family and grow old, but we've got to face this, right here, right now. I love you too, Hermione.  
  
-Ron  
  
Harry crumpled the paper in his fist as more tears that he thought had long been cried out leaked out of his eyes. Harry threw the paper ball at Ron's body.  
  
"I'm sorry, Ron! I'm sorry, Hermione! I'm sorry that I couldn't help you like I said I would! I'm sorry that your dreams will never come true! I'm sorry..."  
  
Harry ran out of the Great hall, his shoe step echoing through the deserted gravesite.  
  
Oh my friends, my friends, don´t ask me  
What your sacrifice was for.  
Empty chairs at empty tables  
Where my friends will sing no more  
  
El Fin.  
  
A/N: I hope you liked it, I was crying as I wrote it! Please read and review! 


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